


billy stayed

by monotonously



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:07:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27322468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/monotonously/pseuds/monotonously
Summary: “he beats me,” was all it took for steve to understand.
Relationships: Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington
Comments: 10
Kudos: 73





	billy stayed

**Author's Note:**

> this isn't the best and i really hate ao3's formatting for posting works, but here. have This.

it began, as it usually does, with a few cross words. his voice would grow louder and hers, no matter strong she pretended to be, would fray like an old shoelace. neil would come home, demand respect, and then start yelling. it stayed like this until she left, quickly in the middle of the night, leaving her son behind.  
  
years went by, and she was nowhere to be seen. no one ever thought to look for her.  
  
her son billy grew older and taller. neil’s fists became chronically bruised, routinely falling upon the face and body of her son.  
  
when neil moved himself and his son out of california and into the quaint town of hawkins, no one suspected a thing. no one questioned what was going on behind closed doors.  
  
billy was always _troubled_. he got into fights at school, having quickly learned that the only way to solve issues was with a fist. everyone assumed the black eyes and scars were from tussles at school.  
  
no one even attempted to think about neil.  
  
billy stepped into his father’s shoes quickly, pounding his fists into king steve harrington’s face before they’d even spoken a word to each other. steve fought back, or at least tried to, until he realized he was up against a boy with more than experience with his knuckles. billy was _angry_ and while steve had no idea why, he knew better than to provoke it. he let himself get bruised up and he reveled in the feeling of eyes swollen shut.  
  
steve assumed he deserved it, especially after everything happened with nancy.  
  
he tried to ignore her, tried to move on. it didn’t work and he ended up friends with middle schoolers. he ended up working at an ice cream shop in a mall. of course, until the mall went up in flames.

  


billy apologized after breaking a plate over steve’s head. he didn’t try to excuse it, didn’t try to fix it. he just said a quick _sorry_ and moved on. something in his eyes, steve decided, said he meant it. steve forgave him.  
  
they began forming some twisted kind of friendship. doe eyed steve would let billy come over whenever he needed to. steve didn’t know why the blond would ever _need_ to hang out with him, but he knew not to question it. he never considered asking about the marks all over his body. he never bothered to think about how badly billy shook when steve’s voice became too loud, even if there was no malice hidden in it.  
  
billy let steve beat him in basketball practice sometimes. it was part of their deal: let me win, and you can come over. billy eventually stopped letting him win, but by that point, steve had already grown accustomed to waking up to see billy making breakfast in the kitchen.

  


when billy finally told steve, it was the night neil nearly beat him to a pulp. he had cuts all over his body and out of fear he refused to go to a hospital. steve patched him up while he sat on the edge of the sink with a blank look on his swollen face.  
  
“he beats me,” was all it took for steve to understand. gently, billy was pulled into a hug that said more than words ever could. steve hoped it said everything he felt.  
_i am so sorry_ , and _i love you so much, billy hargrove_ , and _please never go back there alone_.  
  
billy knew what steve meant; he could feel every emotion packed into that stupid, soft hug.  
  
billy stayed.

**Author's Note:**

> stupid little thing i wrote a real long time ago. decided to put it on the internet for some reason.


End file.
